The Political Issue Nobody’s Discussing (Kebour Ghenna)

The way we see it, things are not going well for Ethiopia. Personal satisfaction is waning, the economy is slowing and confidence in federal and local governments is plummeting, still neither satisfaction with the condition of the country nor confidence in the federal government has been transformed.

Yes, there is a State of Emergency – useful for now in terms of protecting life and assets, but less effective in dealing with the dissatisfactions and distrusts of elected and appointed officials, with meeting the needs of ordinary young citizens, and more significantly with addressing the unacknowledged burning issue of ethnic unrest.

Cynicism about leaders is especially critical to performance among the generations of Ethiopians who came of age during the EPRDF eras, while trust and national unity are more important to older Ethiopians. Now, the whole issue is how WE should – since I believe that “WE” still applies – get people to come together and feel good about our nation, good about our city, or our region.

What would change things?

Well, there is little hope that the crisis will go away. Mistakes have to be corrected. Honest and free discussions got to be accepted. Compromises should be in.
I still think it would be a mistake to interpret all of what happened in the past months and year as a broad destabilizing tendency. I would argue that these protests are actually a factor for stability. If there was a system that allows protests, if there were means to discuss freely and honestly the concerns of citizens we would actually have a more stable system.

The problem…?

The EPRDF sees it as personnel…a commitment or a discipline crisis within the party, not a fundamental failure of the existing political system.
So why not reflect on it and get to the bottom of it.
Conduct an extensive consultation with society (not just the party cadres) and come up with recommendations and proposals to revamp Ethiopia’s political system. Explore ways of introducing a dynamic democracy by inviting non-partisan trusted citizens to develop a new agenda for Ethiopia. An agenda that favors democracy, competitive environment, initiative at all levels, an active civil society and real public control. Explore issues of proportional representation in the federal parliament as well as local councils, more power and independence to Woreda level governments so as to give citizens the capacity to shape public life and to strengthen our democracy, re-examine the nationality question and the role of the Ethiopian state in dealing with the issues of nationalities, the issue of democratic fairness, the unifying ideology of ‘national integration’ as a process of state building, and other questions of high priority. It doesn’t hurt!!
We citizens living in Ethiopia should also not be intimidated or pressured by those whose political agenda emphasizes destruction. I fear that the genre of “all or nothing” dismissal rhetoric offered by some Diasporas misses badly on the real driver that should be at the heart of any discussion involving the national and international political future of our country and region. Instead the focus should be on the give and take of state-crafting: what kind of country does Ethiopia want to be? What is the proper relationship between a government and its people? What should Ethiopia’s economic orientation be? And more…

The elephant in the room…

Oromos have hardly been invited or hardly forced themselves to have any real influence or say in Ethiopia’s corridors of power. They haven’t been exerting any meaningful influence on any policy as “Oromos”, like the Tigreyans now, and the Amharas before. One may argue that being in numerical majority they don’t need any such effort. It could have been true if the policies would have at best been neutral to Oromos and beneficial to other groups. Far from it, these policies have in the past, and are today actively undermining a meaningful political participation of Oromos, and recklessly supporting the status quo. Any minority should be treated in a DEMOCRATIC country based on EQUALITY, and not like a minority. In Ethiopia for a long time, the Oromos have become the minority by the diminishing influence they are having on policy matters. This situation has changed.
It’s important for all to understand the plights of Oromos, Afars, Gambellans, the Southern people’s and all others. Their anger and resentment should be acknowledged, and one may need to move towards some kind of truth and reconciliation process based on the recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and partnership.
Folks, the new Ethiopia can only be governed with respect, and with recognition that the different nations of our Ethiopia have their own real (emphasis) government, as well as the Ethiopian Government. Both are important.

Why?

No offence to any very nationalistic Amharas, Oromos, Tigrayans or Afars out there, but do you really believe that an independent Amahara, Oromya, Tigray or Afar would have even a fraction of the political clout that we enjoy as part of Ethiopia? I for one certainly don’t. It’s thanks to many Oromos, Tigrayans, Amharas and others that Ethiopia has any power at all, and as I see it, an independent Oromya, Tigray or Amhara would have very little of these at all. We’ll all be disregarded and trampled upon. Hear my words!
That’s why we should no longer be talking in terms of leavers and remainers. The challenge, as near as we can tell, is to secure a renewed political discourse and structure in the interest of ALL Ethiopians.

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The writer, Kebour Ghenna, is former President of the Addis Ababa and Ethiopian chamber of commerces, and is currently serving as the Executive Director and co-founder of the Addis Ababa based Initiative Africa, a non-government organization, promoting quality Education in Ethiopia and throughout the continent. Source: social media

12 Responses

I agree with the writer. The Eprdf has failed to recognise the problems of lack of representation at all levels of government, eviction AND marginalisation of the Oromos, luck of oposition in the MPs, luck of free and fair election, etc. Talking about Eprdf success 24/7 and blaming corruption, maladministration in the country, the extremists, Eritrea, Egypt, etc will not make the problems go away.

Well said it is realy genuine proposal and balanced opinion
Thank you Mr Kibur Gena this is required from the most educated and respected Ethiopians if we have to exist as Ethiopians and as a nation before we disintegrated by the bad wish & interest of extremist Amhara Oromos Tigres etc

Yes the Amaras and Tigrayans need to stop riding on the back of the Oromo ppl.
Admit it or not Ethiopian politics has been entirely dominated by these two ethnics and mainly the orthodox section of it since time.
The Amaras has subjugated mainly the Oromos to unimaginable cruelty for centeries and now their cousins who miraculously escaped the cruelty of the past admins did very little to ease the problem instead they appear to be nailing the coffin softly in the name of development.

The Oromo elites on the other hands are the embarrassment of any elite existed.
Some are stroking the ego of the Arabs and Shabiya
Some are playing EPRDF now OLF tomorrow depends on who fattens their pocket
Some are pissed their Amharanization process was interrupted without their consent so they prostitute with their old masters…

Opportunity has presented

The federation will make sense if the Oromos are majority stake holders
Battle out everything at home
Give Egypt middle finger
Give Oromos their lands their is no such thing as Shewans
Put Addis on referendum (district or Oromia Capital)
Let the good ppl of Oromo be a good host to Africa’s capital
Let Eritreans bury Shabiya and their last 25 years blunder
Let them decide if they want to still stay Singapoor or join the federation

Derg took land from the the Feudal goons and gave it back to the peasants if they farm on it. TPLF-EPRDF took the land back declare” land belongs to the government”, mind you not to the people but to the government. Who is the governments? The governing officials. In other words Ethiopian land belongs to TPLF and its stooge gangs . They can take the city land for their personal use, they can take any vast farm land, they can lease it to Arabs and Indian, as long as they get paid handsomely.
When an Indian, Ethiopian land owner Dance around to the world to see how large is his almost hard to believe property and announcing he got it almost for free. Many thought the government must be pressed hard to give Ethiopian vast fertile land for almost for free. Ha, ha ,ha TPLF giving land for free?
The TPLF goons got their hundreds of millions dollars commissions deposited in their foreign account.
The people evicted from their own ancestral by corrupt gangs who call themselves officials to openly and generously award it to their paymaster Arab and Indian land grab tycoons.
Aha, Aha, Aha. The Network must be, clipped, destroyed. Ethiopians will not be divided because they are Ethiopians, the stolen money will be returned with interest. The money Gods in western rich nations will sacrifice the the loot and the looters with no problem, but their is a missing link must be restored , that is for Ethiopians to unite to trust each other and focus to one enemy target, at once to turn their frustration towards capturing the rotten enemy called by the Prime Minster himself The Network.
Good job Awrambatimes, avoid as much as you can not shake hands with the “Network” it is very ugly enemy of Ethiopia.
Good article.

In addition to not having a clout as indipendent entities, IF and when every region decides to go it alone, one must not forget that it might also take endless bloodshed before we settle TPLF made regional boundeeies, as already seen with Welqayt issue…it is only because there is still this common identity called Ethiopia that potential teritorial disputes are buried…I honestly don’t know how “political analysts” like Jewar Mehamod imagined the possiblity of destroying Ethiopia and running away from the middle, unless he means running away with his family to a safe place which he has already done leaving Oromo people in an endelss fire.

Secondly, there seems to be this distorted idea of what majority means when it comes Ethiopia”s demographic make-up…It is the rest of Ethiopia”s nations and nationalities combined that are Majority and be numericaly the HIGHEST doesn’t make majority…there is a big diffrence…plus, on a practical level, Oromo ethnic group may be the highest in number today but who knows it might be outnumbered tomorrow, it is just not practical to keep changing be it the common working language or whatever some power hungry Oromo elites are crying for everytime numbers change?…instead, how about these elites deal with their own personal inferiority complex and accept the fact that most Ethiopians speak and understand Amharic due to historical accident and concentrate on the real and practical issues that matter to people”s day to day life..things like peace an prosperity…

Having said that, we may just be wasting our energy trying to spell-out the obvious since most of these self appointed Oromo “activists” know the true concequence of their action but choose to do it out of pure hatred an pissible personal gain…

So much for their political expertee, it is just so hard to believe people like Jewar honestly think Egypt whose altmate goal is to sustain constant termoil up stream would some how exclusively allow tranquil “Oromia” in the middle of hell….interestingly major rivers in Oromia such Dedesa and even Abay are all tributaries to Blue Nile…..these are some of the facts ordinary Oromos need to be told…inseparable people need to be told about common goals and common enemies they can fight togather, not some old, irrelevant and mostly outdated Minilik this Minilik that, nonsense!

Thanks for sharing your prospective.
I belive TPLF leaders’s intentions and miscalculation put the country in crises. They believed they should control everything, rule indefinitely with demagogue ideology with no accountability and transparency .
They shut down free speech and free thought, which is fundamental for human freedom and progress, and a fundamental tool to form a system of check and balance.

Then, they looted the nation, become millioier and billionier, enrich themselves and their circles. This created risentment and anger with rest of the society.

TPLF’s record shows so far, they are neither Revolutionary nor Democrat . Let one check with Tigray , there is no a single indicator of existence of basic democracy . Tigray resembles North Korea.
They are just another African Warlords who used tenths of thousands poor kids for the fight to grab power and loot . Now, we all are paying the price, fearing our mother land with long history , a symbol of independence for black race may not be the same.

This is the result of faild leaders and failed system.That is why Aristotle siad, we need philosopher leadrs, who thinks for greater good for greater number of people, for the whole society not for greedy and incompetent rulers.

I wholeheartedly agree with the writer. When we decimate our country, we equally decimate our importance in the face of international community and it may take several decades for us to bring ourselves back from the ashes of destruction as small, irrelevant and totally forgotten by all. Our current influence regionally and globally will not be regained easily since our adversaries will work hard and very much ahead of us in every way and at every stage. Hence, we all should take a breath and make a soul searching as to what steps should we take to make Ethiopia a better place to live with it’s culture of harmony between different groups even gets stronger and deeper and where every opinion is heard and respected.
We should strive to build a society which gives more emphasis for competency and perfection than ethnic identity or political outlook. The justice system has to be independent and free of political influence. If we don’t change the status quo and we fail to import the western style of democracy where all of us are equal under the law, every one feels represented, and where every opinion matters, we will eventually end up fragmented and become irrelevant.

Daiwt says “Things are not going well” he is right things are not going well only for the few, less than a million Ethiopians who had been sucking the blood of 100 million Ethiopians .

Woubshet Taye said “Things are going well for Ethiopia. Freedom is getting nearer and nearer for the majority . No victory is won easily so we are happily going to pass through the current struggle that might be difficult at times but which is fruitful.”

I strongly agree that we get strength from unity; and it will be extremely hard to survive divided. So, our common strategic objective should rightly be unity within diversity.

Unity prerequisites equity at all levels, scales and aspects. The interests of all human beings are the same. They demand equal opportunity to live, work and prosper. These all demand transparency in concrete terms. These could be ensured only through series of mutually supporting and reinforcing systems steadfastly practiced all times with no exception.

The building blocks of communities, ethnic groups, religions, cultures, etc. are individuals. Fair and proper treatment of individual right will take of the rest. Social groups rights’ are the sum total of individual rights. Democracy: options selection through free and fair election will take care of all aspects of socio-poletical aspects.

The government should, therefore, focus its efforts on establishing and materializing series of mutually supporting systems, revising and strengthening the existing ones as appropriate, in full consultation and engagement of all citizines. The bottomline of these legal instruments should be equal citizen rights and on how to ensure and sustain them.

Replacing individual government authorities is only an ephemeral solution with extremely limited effectiveness.